Senate panel looking at limits on surveillance

Jul. 31, 2013
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The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hear testimony from top Obama officials on July 31, for the first time since the House defeated a bill to shut down the National Security Agency's secret collection of phone records. / J. Scott Applewhite AP

by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

by Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Democratic and Republican senators pressed federal intelligence officials Wednesday on the propriety of a controversial surveillance operation that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans, less than a week after the program narrowly survived a House vote aimed at shutting it down.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing represents yet another challenge to the government's surveillance activity since details about the programs were disclosed more than a month ago by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's chairman, offered one of the most stinging critiques Wednesday, questioning whether the phone records program has been as effective in thwarting terror plots as administration officials have long claimed.

NSA Director Keith Alexander told lawmakers last month that more than 50 potential plots had been disrupted with the aid of the phone collection program and another operation, also disclosed by Snowden, that tracked the communications of non-U.S. citizens abroad.

Intelligence officials say 12 of those plots were likely disrupted with the aid of the mass phone collection.

But Leahy said a recent review of a classified list of "terrorist events'' that the operation is credited with preventing was not conclusive.

"The list simply does not reflect dozens or even several terrorist plots that (the phone records program) helped thwart or prevent,'' he told top officials from the NSA, Justice Department and Director of National Intelligence. "Whether this program is a critical national security tool is a key question for Congress as we consider possible changes to the law.''

Others renewed concerns about the scope of the program and questioned how it could be operated without breaching the bounds of personal privacy.

"Don't you think we have left the state relevance?'' Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked, suggesting that the mass records collection was too large to be an effective counter-terrorism tool.

"How can one get one's mind around the concept (of) that amount of data?'' Lee said.

Said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.: "It appears this system is failing in maintaining the trust and credibility of the American people.''

Intelligence officials, meanwhile, opened another defense of the telephone record collection program Wednesday by declassifying documents that outline the legal restrictions on the phone collection operation and how it is monitored. The documents, which provided few additional details beyond those that already have been disclosed, were released just prior to the hearing by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

At the same time, officials appeared more willing to consider possible changes to the surveillance program, including: a more focused system that would limit the scope of record collection; a proposal that would reduce the length of record storage from 5 years to possibly 2 years; and the creation of a special counsel that would challenge the government's surveillance requests before the surveillance court.

"Our goal is to get out as much information as we can to provide as much transparency as we can on this,'' Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the panel.

Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce said, however, that there was a need to maintain a sizable database for the programs to be effective.

"We must have the dots to connect the dots,'' Joyce said.

Nevertheless, senators vowed that changes would be made.

"When you look at the reach of this (phone record collection) program, it envelopes a substantial number of Americans,'' said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "It seems to me that what is being described as a very narrow program is a very broad program.''

"There are going to be some proposals for changes to the law,'' Leahy said.